


getting dizzy in your wake

by macwithoutcheese



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, I wrote this feverishly in one sitting late at night, botanist!keyleth, forest ranger!vex, reluctant roommates to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 13:02:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16703137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macwithoutcheese/pseuds/macwithoutcheese
Summary: “You must be Vex’ahlia Vessar!” She strides forward, hand half extended before apparently thinking better of it and lowering her arms stiffly to her side. “My name is Keyleth Ashari, I'm a botanist—well going to be a botanist, which is why I'm here obviously. Well not obviously—”"What do you need from me?""Well, I guess I really kind of have to...live with you."ORBotanist Keyleth has to stay with Game Warden/Forest Ranger Vex while she studies the areas flora





	getting dizzy in your wake

**Author's Note:**

> title from "I Crush Everything" by Johnathan Coulton which is also on Keyleth's playlist, chapter title from "Hopeless Wanderer" by Mumford and Sons from Vex's playlist.

She drinks the coffee even though she doesn't need it, both hands clasped the ceramic mug pattern with cartoon bears, a gift from her brother. The smell is warm, sweet, and mingles with the misty forest air. She's already in uniform, perched on the railing on the front porch of the house she is staying in, legs swinging idly, pine trees and birds song surrounding her, greeting the morning. 

She revels in the peace for long moment, finishing off her coffee and taking the mug to the kitchen. Inside the front door laying with his head on his paws is a huge black mastiff, looking up at her with dark doe eyes. She smiles, chirps a warm good morning, and he huffs, eyes following her as she passes. She washes her mug, sets it to dry, and grabs the keys to her truck where they hang inside a cupboard. 

At the rattle of the keys the mastiff lifts his head, drooped ears and wrinkled forehead perking up. She laughs affectionately, “Come on, Trinket,” as she opens the door and he bounds out with an excited woof.

She takes a moment to lock the door, Trinket loping around the truck. She unlocks the passenger door of the white pickup, branded with the Department of Fish and Game logo. Trinket wiggles on his haunches before leaping and scrambling clumsily inside. On the floor below Trinket’s massive body is her backpack, complete with granola bars and radio, as well as other various essentials that fall just a bit lower on her list importance. 

She does her rounds with the windows down, letting Trinket enjoy the breeze as much as she does as it blows through her dark braided hair. His tongue lolls out, drool splashing side of the dusty truck. She keeps her eyes on the road and the trees, scanning campsites. Most of them are empty this time of year. 

It's midday when she stops, parking her truck in the almost-gravel rocks at the top of Ball Rock. She sits on one of the outcroppings, Trinket sniffing around and chasing grasshoppers, munching on a granola bar and powering up her cell. There's only a few places she gets service out here, and her brother gets testy if she goes too long without texting him. Not to say she does it reluctantly, she misses him as much as he misses her. She sets it down as it buzzes, rolling her eyes as messages pour in.

Most of what her brother has sent her are pictures of him and his boyfriend, Percy, and plenty of the both of them with the rest of their friends, rounded out with complaints and quips and questions about when she's getting time off and hurry and text me stubby. She sends a quick miss you too, Vax and only seconds pass before he's calling her. 

“Vex'ahlia,” his voice snaps over the line before she can say a word, “you took a total of two weeks and three days to contact me, not that I was counting—”

“He was counting!” a voice, she's sure it's Percy, interjects. There's a shuffle and a thud and Percy starts laughing. 

“—regardless,” Vax continues and she smiles, “don't take so long next time.”

“Vax'ildan, brother dear, you're not the boss of me. I'm a whole two minutes older.”

“And I'm two inches taller. Stubby.”

“Have I missed anything monumental?” Vex asks, ignoring the never-dying childhood nickname. “Has Percival finally popped the question?”

Vax sputters, and Percy's voice chimes in, “No!” It gets louder, clearer, closer to the phone, “I'm keeping him on edge as long as possible.”

“That's why I love you, Percy darling, you give my brother a taste of his own medicine.”

“On second thought, Vex,” Vax says, assumedly having wrestled the phone away from Percy, “you can stay out in the woods and never call me all you like.”

Vex'ahlia laughs. “Perhaps I shall do just that.” There's a muffled crackle of static, and a distorted voice rings from her left. “Vessar?” Then a two-toned beep and silence. Vex frowns. “Sorry boys, I've got a job to do. Love you,” she ends in a singsong voice, cutting off Vax's call me next week as she hangs up. 

She shuffles through her bag for her walkie talkie and brings it level with her chin. “Vessar here, what's up?”

“Thank god. Vex, there's some nerd here and you've gotta come get her,” the short, gruff voice says. 

“Why me?”

“She asked for your sector, just hurry up, she's killing me. Kashaw out.” 

Vex rolls her eyes, sighs. Takes one last look at the sprawling landscape below her vantage point and starts toward her truck. “Let's go, Trinket, we've got errands to run.”

* * *

It's a slow rumbling drive to the station, a potholed dirt road obstructed by brush and roots and rabbits. The station is small, barely bigger than her home, and decorated with slogans on metal signs and the classic Smokey the Bear fire danger warning sign. Mild.

Vex parks her truck and leaves Trinket inside, who lays his heavy head out the window and huffs. “Don't be a baby,” she teases, ruffing his ears. 

She swings the door open and takes in the sight of the only two occupants. Standing at the front of Kashaw's desk, animatedly talking his ear off, is an impressively tall young woman with long red hair. She's wearing a white t-shirt tucked into her pants and a pair of good sturdy boots. Kashaw Vesh, with one eye blue the other yellow and shoulder length brown hair, gives Vex an exhausted, desperate, save me look. 

The woman seems to catch it but misses the emotion entirely, and she turns with a bright smile. Her jaw is angled, eyes bright green, freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose and her cheek bones, and Vex can see a flower tattoo along her collar bone just below her shirt. She's dazzlingly pretty, but as soon as her rambling is directed to Vex she nearly forgets about it. 

“You must be Vex’ahlia Vessar!” She strides forward, hand half extended before apparently thinking better of it and lowering her arms stiffly to her side. “My name is Keyleth Ashari, I'm a botanist—well going to be a botanist, which is why I'm here obviously. Well not obviously—” The young woman rambles for a moment, gesturing, and Vex shoots Kash a look, who nods with a grimace. 

“What do you need from me, ma'am?” Vex cuts her off. 

The not-quite-a-botanist, Keyleth, blinks. “Ma'am?” she repeats quietly as if unused to the term. Then, “Oh, right! Um, well, I need to do some field research for my paper and for, you know, actual experience, and the area I need according to Mr. Vesh—” he groans but Keyleth doesn't seem to notice, “—is yours! And you live there! And so I guess I really kind of have to… live with you.” Her voice trails off awkwardly, lilting into a nervous question as she wrings her hands. 

Vex blinks. Pauses. Looks at Keyleth, then Kash, then back to Keyleth. “There's not anywhere else you could go? No empty sector?” 

“Oh, no,” she says hurriedly, launching into some explanation about a species that grows specifically in that small area. “And Mr. Vesh says I can't be out here alone in case something… eats me apparently, but I didn't think anything out here could eat me, but I guess you two would know better than I would—” 

Vex gives Kash a sharp glare, who chuckles. “Fine, fine, just. Get in the truck and I'll take you to my place.”

The woman brightens. “Okay! Awesome!” and she darts outside, grabbing two, maybe three, large duffel bags from next to the door, lifting them with one arm with ease. 

Vex rushes to Kash's table, hands flat and gaze level with his, hers full of fury and his of mirth. “I am going to kill you and feed you to my dog.”

“Have fun with the nerd.”

Vex groans and walks outside. 

Keyleth is standing outside the truck, petting and cooing at Trinket, her bags in the bed of the truck. Vex walks over, opens the door as Keyleth, a bit startled, steps back. Trinket stumbles out, shakes himself, and pants up at Vex. Vex smiles. “You're getting in the back, buddy, sorry.” He trots at her heels and she opens the tailgate and pats the truck bed. Trinket looks confused and almost affronted for a moment before hopping up, Vex giving him an extra push. She closes the tailgate, makes sure it's latched, and hooks the chain she keeps hooked up there to Trinket's bright blue collar. 

Keyleth looks curiously at the set up. A chord runs from one side of the bed to the other, through a link near the end of the chain, so Trinket has a bit more freedom of movement. “Come on,” Vex says, walking around to the driver's side as Keyleth pulls herself in. Vex sighs, starts the truck, and drives back to her home under the late afternoon sun. 

Vex takes the long way back and Keyleth spends the entirety of the ride staring out the window, nearly hanging out of it, still rambling but mostly to herself, all about the flora of the area, what she can see. Vex listens for a bit, genuinely interested but not enough to make conversation. Vex may be charming and charismatic but that's out of necessity. She chose a job where she gets to live in the middle of the woods for good reason. It's evening by the time she pulls up to her home, Trinket giving a large yawn as she unhooks him. She lets lets him out and he pads to the porch and sits next to the door, Keyleth following him, bags in hand, shooting a few awkward glances at Vex. Vex grabs her backpack from the floor of the passenger seat, where it thankfully has no dusty bootprints on it, and slings it over her shoulder. She unlocks the door and flicks on the light to her small living room. There's an old two person couch, a coffee table, a bookshelf, and not much else. 

“Spare room is this way,” Vex says as Trinket hops up onto the couch and makes himself comfortable. Vex leads Keyleth to the door across from her own bedroom, where she kept spare supplies and such. “I'll clean it up in the morning so you can get settled. How long do you expect to stay, darling?”

The term slips out, a common one from Vex, and she would have thought nothing of it if Keyleth hadn't jumped as if she had been shocked. “Oh, um, well, a few weeks at least, I don't know, it all depends,” she manages. 

Vex hums. “Alright. Are you coming with me on my rounds tomorrow?” 

Keyleth practically glows. “Would I be allowed?”

Vex purses her lips. “Of course. That's why you're here. Do you drink coffee?” 

“Oh, uhh, no just tea, thank you.” Keyleth looks caught off guard by the question. 

“I unfortunately don't have any tea but when I head into town this weekend you can come and we'll pick some up.”

Keyleth's eyes widen. “That's very sweet, thank you.”

Vex gives a smile, “Of course.” Keyleth flushes ever so slightly. “Goodnight, Keyleth, I'm right across the hall if you need me. Bathroom is on the right. I'll wake you.” She leaves without waiting for a reply. 

As she closes the spare room's door behind her and opens her own Trinket comes walking up, taking his usual spot at the foot of her bed. She closes the door, undresses, climbs into bed and sighs. “She's jumpy,” she tells Trinket quietly. “And flustered. This may not be the best arrangement, but it should at least be a bit fun.”

She lays awake for a while and watches the moonlight trickle in through her window before dozing off to Trinket's deep breathing and the night sounds of the forest.

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about forest rangers, game wardens, or botany, but they feel right. vexleth didn't get nearly as much love so here I am, on episode 24 of campaign one, taking matters into my own hand. 
> 
> yell at me on tumblr @gals-s


End file.
